Lord high commissioner
Lord High Commissioner is the style of high commissioners, i.e. direct representatives of the monarch, in three cases in the Kingdom of Scotland and the United Kingdom, two of which are no longer extant. Consequently, the remaining office is often known in short simply as the Lord High Commissioner.
Ecclesiastic: Church of Scotland
[edit]The lord high commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is the British sovereign's personal representative to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (the Kirk), reflecting the latter's role as the national church of Scotland, and the Sovereign's role as a member of that Church.
Historical political offices
[edit]Scottish Parliament
[edit]See Lord High Commissioner to the Parliament of Scotland.
Ionian Islands Protectorate
[edit]There were ten incumbent Lord High Commissioners of the Ionian Islands from 1815–1863, representing the British protecting power to the United States of the Ionian Islands, a federal state of seven formerly Venetian (see Ionian Islands under Venetian rule) Ionian islands (Corfu, Cephalonia, Zante, Santa Maura, Ithaca, Cerigo and Paxos). The United States of the Ionian Islands was officially a joint protectorate of the Allied Christian Powers, de facto a UK amical protectorate, and was established under the 1815 Treaty of Paris. The office ceased when the islands were integrated in independent Greece in 1864.
The incumbents were:
- 1815–1823: Sir Thomas Maitland
- 1823–1832: Sir Frederick Adam
- 1832–1835: The Lord Nugent
- 1835–1840: Sir Howard Douglas
- 1840–1843: James Alexander Stewart Mackenzie
- 1843–1849: The Lord Seaton
- 1849–1855: Sir Henry George Ward
- 1855–1859: Sir John Young
- 1859–1863: Sir Henry Knight Storks
In addition, between November 1858 and March 1859, William Ewart Gladstone served as high commissioner extraordinary to determine the political future of the Ionian Islands. He recommended that the Ionian Islands remain under British protection. However, when the Bavarian-born King of Greece, Otto I, was deposed and replaced by the Anglophile king George I, the Ionian Islands were ceded to Greece, ending the position of lord high commissioner.
See also
[edit]- Supreme Governor of the Church of England, religious title of the British monarch
- List of moderators of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
- Order of precedence in Scotland
- Lord-lieutenant, another representative of the British sovereign, to a lieutenancy area